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Technical Reminiscences 

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By D. \T! BRUNTON 


Early Days in Colorado 

By T. A. RICKARD 




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Reprinted from 

MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS 
November 27, 1915 





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Technical Reminiscences 


By D. W. Brunton 


Early in June 1875, Major C. H. McIntyre, president of the Dakota 
& San Juan Mining Co., came to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see if he 
could engage a young mining engineer to go out to Colorado with him 
to take charge of the engineering department of his newly organized 
mining company. 


As I had been taking a special course at the University of Michigan, 
some of the faculty were kind enough to recommend me for the posi¬ 
tion, which 1 needed fully as much as the Dakota & San Juan Mining 
Co. required an engineer. Arrangements were speedily concluded and 
we immediately started for the West, arriving in Denver on June 20. 
The trip from Chicago west at that time was far from being as com¬ 
fortable as it is today, but it was enlivened by the sight of countless 
herds of buffalo, which were still roaming over the plains almost 
unmolested. 

At that time the American House on the corner of 16th and Blake 
streets was not only the leading hotel of the city, but was situated 
practically in the centre of the business district. What is now the 
business centre of Denver was at that time the residence district, and 
the present fashionable residence portion of Denver was then densely 
populated by prairie-dogs. Three or four years later, when Major 
McIntyre decided to make Denver his home, he bought a house away 
out in the country where, as he expected, he would always have an 
entirely unobstructed view of the mountains. This residence has 
lately been pulled down and its site occupied by the Bank Apartment 
house. 1233 Sherman avenue. Mining and the passing years have both 
dealt kindly with the Major as he is now ‘on Easy street,’ hale and 
hearty at the age of 78. 

We remained in Denver over a week, engaging a force of miners 
and purchasing mining supplies, and on the morning of the 29th left 
for Pueblo over the Denver & Rio Grande, which was at that time a 
narrow-gauge railroad. To test our camp equipment and to make sure 
that we had everything necessary for the long trip from Pueblo to 


Mineral Point, in the San Juan, where the Dakota & San Juan Co.’s 
mines were situated, we decided, instead of going* to a hotel, to utilize 
our camping outfit and pitched our tents on a small island in the 
Arkansas river. A tremendous rainfall somewhere up-stream caused 
a rapid rise of the river, which overflowed the most of the island, put 
out our camp-fires, and even came up to the edge of the tents. We 
spent the latter half of the night in watching the flood and debating 
whether we should try to wade to the mainland or take to the trees 
if the flood should continue to rise and render our position untenable. 

The roads leading out of Pueblo at that time were nothing but 
wheel-tracks*; as these did not extend over half the distance to Mineral 
Point, we decided to pack the entire distance rather than change 
methods of transportation midway. Progress was slow, as the packers 
were Mexicans and knew more about mamma* than p/mf Traveling 
through a new and beautiful country, however, had many compensa¬ 
tions. Game was plentiful; the streams had not then been whipped by 
thousands of fishermen, so by keeping a few miles in advance of the 
expedition during the day, 1 had glorious sport, the results of which 
greatly improved our bill of fare and lessened the drain on the supply 
of provisions which we were packing with us. 

Late one afternoon, just as I was about to start back for camp, 
clouds of extraordinary density scudded over the horizon and darkness, 
accompanied by a terrific rain, came on so quickly that 1 was barely 
able to find my way to a little dirt-covered shack which 1 had passed 
not long before the storm came up. The cabin had been built by a 
home-seeker from Missouri who had a wife and two children. They 
had only one bed, very little to eat. and, even before we had disposed 
of a scanty meal of saleratus bread and bacon, the rain commenced to 
percolate down through the mud-covered roof and little murky streams 
were soon dripping down in every part of the cabin. 1 sat up all night 
on a cracker-box in a corner of the room with a poncho over my head 
trying to keep dry and get a few winks of sleep ; but, after a most un¬ 
comfortable night, which seemed to last an age, morning dawned as 
clear and bright as if storms would be forever unknown. 

1 found my half-drowned horse and started back for camp. About 
the middle of the Wet Mountain valley I ran across a man who had 
been caught by the storm, spreading out Ids wet blankets on some rocks. 
Stopping to talk, 1 soon ascertained that he was a mining engineer for 


^Tomorrow, f Hurry. 



another mining company whose outfit was a few days behind ours on 
the same trail. This engineer was TI. W. Reed. Leaving his blankets 
to dry, he rode back with me to our camp for breakfast, after which we 



A PACK-TRAIN ON THE ROAD TO SILVERTON 


hunted and fished together and had such a glorious time as only young, 
care-free, engineers in a new country could have. 

One night we returned to camp and found everything in confusion. 
The packers, realizing that the expedition was in a wild country where 





there were no wagon-roads and no possibility of obtaining other 
packers, had struck. The president and secretary of the company were 
in a quandary what to do: whether to give in to the unreasonable 
demands of the packers or to wait there until new packers could be 
obtained from Pueblo. In an unguarded moment I suggested that, as 
the miners who were going in to the mines were doing nothing on the 
trip, there was no reason why they should not be trained to pack. 
This view was pronounced sound, but the question was, how were 
they going to he trained, as there was nobody who knew anything 
about packing except the strikers. After discussing the thing for 
some time, Reed and I came to the conclusion that we had seen the 
animals packed in the mornings often enough to be able to do it, so we 
had one of the quietest burros brought out from the herd and started 
in to see what could be done. A few attempts showed us that the 
mysteries of packing were not to he solved off-hand, but by sticking 
to it for nearly a day we finally learned how to throw the ‘double¬ 
diamond hitch/ and then commenced to teach the miners, some of 
whom showed considerable aptitude, but the majority of them lacked 
both the knack and inclination. Still, they all saw the necessity for 
it, and after a day or two spent in practising packing and unpacking 
we were able to move, the foreman of the mine-crew taking charge 
while Reed and I rode along behind to give expert advice, which, in* 
this case, was rarely successful unless accompanied by a complete 
physical demonstration. However, all things come to an end; after a 
laborious but uneventful journey we reached Mineral Point and began 
the development of the mines. 

This alleged city had an altitude of 11,700 ft. and contained a 
motley assortment of tents, together with a few poorly-built log-cabins. 
The rain-fall was so great and flurries of snow so frequent that a tent 
was far from being comfortable as a residence, so Reed and I began 
looking for some one who could build us a cabin. We finally found 
a carpenter who said he could build the cabin if he had the logs. We 
were unable to find any one who could or would furnish the logs, 
hence Reed and I decided to do this ourselves. He had been brought 
up in the Maine woods and I on a Canadian farm, so we were both 
familiar with the use of an axe and soon had the requisite number of 
trees cut down and logs cut to the desired length. Then we were 
fortunate enough to find a packer who hauled them to the site with an 
old half-broken pack-mule. Once established in our new home we 
made ourselves as comfortable as possible, but, of course, were obliged 

[ 6 ] 


> 


to do our own cooking, and the same room had to be used for every¬ 
thing, including surveying instruments and my little assay-furnace, 
which was set up in one corner. 

The development of the mines showed large bodies of ore, most of it 
extremely low-grade silver-lead. It was the company’s intention to 
continue work on the mines throughout the winter, but an early snow- 
tall closed the pass at the head of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison 
before the winter supply of provisions arrived and we were all 
obliged to migrate. 

There were no snow-shoes in camp and tramping through the deep 
snow over the range was the hardest trip I ever undertook. AVlien we 
reached what is now the site of Lake City we found some changes, a 
few log-cabins had been built and one of them bore the sign 
‘ Restaurant. ’ Reed and 1. who had been cooking for ourselves all 
summer, immediately started to vary the monotony by ordering a meal 
at this alleged restaurant. The hill of fare consisted of very tough 
fresh beef and saleratus bread, after which they brought in some 
stewed dried apples, whereupon I remarked to Reed that I never 
expected to see dried apples served for dessert. He replied im¬ 
mediately with a great deal of emphasis: “Damn a country where 
dried apples are a luxury.” 

Conveyances of any kind were unobtainable, our animals were 
completely worn out, there was nothing to do but for us to finish the 
journey on foot; so Ave tramped up Slumgullion Pass, across the 
Cebolla, and down Spring gulch to the valley of the Rio Grande, 
Avliich we followed down to the town of Del Norte, Avhere Ave Avere 
fortunate enough to find a settler with a light wagon who agreed to 
drive us through San Luis Park, over Moscow Pass, down through the 
Wet Mountain valley, to Pueblo, where we took the train for Denver. 

Coming direct from the populous East in the early summer, Denver 
had seemed to us a little, poorly built, country town, but, after four 
months in the wilds of the San Juan, Avhen Ave came back to Denver it 
seemed to us an immense city and its somewhat primitive hotels the 
height of luxury. 

Central City and GeorgetoAvn were at that time the oldest and most 
prosperous mining settlements in the State, so I decided to see some¬ 
thing of the mines and mills there before going East for the winter. 
At GeorgetoAvn, the last, place visited was the Stewart mill, which, at 
that time, was the largest in the Rocky Mountains. The mill treated 
almost exclusively the high-grade silver ores of the district, the proc- 


7 1 


esses employed being the Von Patera and the Hunt & Douglas. Hypo¬ 
sulphite of soda was purchased in Germany, and, owing to the excessive 
freight-rates, it was extremely expensive; in addition to which, for 
various causes, the consumption was extraordinarily high. In the 
course of the visit it transpired that the proprietors were looking tor 
a mining or metallurgical engineer who knew enough about chemistry 
to maintain the solutions in working order without excessive loss. The 
opening seemed too good a one for me to pass over, so 1 wired to Denver 
for my trunk and began the study of the interesting problem before me. 

It was soon found easy to keep the solutions in working order, hut 
the large loss of chemicals per ton of ore treated coidd not he reduced. 
The difficulty was finally solved hv the manufacture of hyposulphite 
of calcium from the waste sulphur di-oxide from the roasting-furnaces. 
This furnished a supply of solvent so cheap that the question of loss 
became relatively unimportant and the cost of solution replacement 
was reduced to a small fraction of what it had been before. 

The Hunt & Douglas portion of the plant, thanks to the careful 
instructions and constant advice of the two inventors, proved most 
successful, and, to me, one of the most gratifying results was the lasting 
friendship formed with both Thomas Sterry Hunt and James Douglas. 

This work proved most interesting and occupied the winter of 
1875-76, hut when spring came, and with it reports of new discoveries 
in the various parts of the West, I became restive. Engineers were 
scarce, examinations and investigations were offered freely, therefore 
I naturally fell into the work of making examinations and investiga¬ 
tions in widely separated localities, which gave, not only a widened 
experience, hut an acquaintanceship with the operators and mines of 
the different districts that has ever since proved extremely useful. 

In 1877 the discovery of lead carbonates in the hills bordering on 
the old alluvial diggings of California Gulch electrified the entire 
country and the magic word Leadville was on the lips of every one. 
Existing engagements kept me out of the new district until the spring 
of 1880. when I reached the camp in time to pack a gun and take a 
hand in the suppression of a strike. The privates were willing but 
undisciplined, and very few of the officers had any military training 
whatever. When the strike was ended I came out of the ordeal with a 
major’s commission and a fixed determination that in the future I 
would do what 1 could to head off strikes rather than to participate 
in repressing them. 

Conditions in Leadville during its earlv days are so truth full v and 



[ 9 ] 


AFTER THE FIRST FALL OF SNOW ; THE SAN JUAN RANGE 





graphically portrayed in Mary Hallock Foote’s most interesting novels 
‘The Led Horse Claim’ and ‘John Bodewin’s Testimony’ that it would 
be a waste of time to describe them here, but one occurrence, with 
which I had some connection, deserves especial mention. 

The Robert E. Lee, though not one of the earliest discoveries in 
Leadville, soon proved to be the richest mine in the district, and when 
it had reached a point where it was paying dividends of $90,000 per 
month its workings were completely flooded by an influx of water 
that for some time defied the efforts of the company to handle it. J. Y. 
Marshall, the president of the company, came to see me several times 
about it, but we could never come to terms, principally, I suppose, 
because I had the boyish idea that the unwatering of a mine capable 
of paying that amount of dividends should contribute somewhat 
heavily to the financial assets of the engineer carrying on the work. 
One day, however, his patience becoming exhausted, he came down to 
see me and said, “Pump out that mine as quick as you can and when 
you get through send in your bill.” Previous attempts at drainage 
had shown approximately the amount of water to be handled, which 
was entirely beyond the capacity of any stock pumps obtainable. I 
measured the compartments of the shaft carefully and then placed an 
order in the East for pumps as large as could possibly be passed 
through the openings. The pumps, after some delays, finally reached 
Leadville. At this time Mr. Marshall was a candidate for the office 
of district judge and, while he absolutely declined to take any part in 
the political campaign, he conceived the brilliant idea that, as the 
pumps would be ready to start a few days before the election, he could, 
without the loss of prospective judicial dignity, give a big reception 
when the unwatering of his mine began. The date for starting the 
pumps being set, my mechanics made several surreptitious trials of the 
machinery a day or two before to make sure that everything was right. 
Invitations to the ‘blow-out’ had been sent to everybody in the district 
from mine-managers down to nippers. The mine-office was filled with 
champagne and cigars for the managers and superintendents, while 
the shaft-buildings and ore-houses were loaded up with beer and 
‘smokes’ for the miners. Promptly at 2 o’clock on the afternoon of 
the date set for the entertainment the steam was turned on, the mine- 
whistle began to blow, and the tooting was taken up by the whistles 
all over the hill. As the pumps started and water commenced to run 
down the mountain-side, the drinks began to flow down thirsty 
throats. The riotous scenes of the afternoon and evening were some- 


thing- to be long remembered. It is needless to say that Marshall 
was elected judge by an overwhelming majority, that the mine was 
soon pumped dry, and the long delayed dividends restored. 

The fame of Leadville and the fabulous profits made by some of its 
mines brought into the city a continuous stream of ‘tenderfeet. ’ 
While there was room for all of the miners that cared to come, tiie 
non-productive newcomers were far in excess of all possible require¬ 
ments. 

Among the young mining engineers who drifted into town about 
this time was one Ferdinand Van Zant, who, although he was equipped 
with a thorough technical education and a most pleasing personality, 
was unable to find engineering work of any kind. As his funds 
gradually dwindled, he gave up the hope of obtaining a position and 
began hunting for something farther and farther down the line until, 
ultimately, rather than allow his parents to know that he could not 
earn a living, he took a job as a waiter in a restaurant. One of the 
tables which Van Zant attended was principally used by the office 
employees of one of the big mines on the hill and before he had been 
at this work very long he one day overheard one of the men say that he 
wished he knew where to find “a bright intelligent young fellow who 
could make good figures and was accurate in his additions,” for the 
position of weigh-master up at the mine. Van Zant immediately 
applied for the position and was accepted forthwith. A few months 
after this one of the foremen in the mine told the office-boys that he 
was certain there was an ore-shoot passing from the mine they were 
working into the adjoining claim and that if the boys would chip in 
together and get a lease on this claim he was certain they would make 
some money. The plan was carried out and Van Zant was one of the 
contributors to the pot. A shaft was sunk and a fine body of ore 
encountered. During the life of the lease the little company made a 
very handsome profit. At the expiration of the lease the owners of the 
mine refused to renew it, therefore, in accordance with the custom of 
the times, the lessees signalized the final division of the profits and 
winding up of the business by a champagne supper. At the close of 
the repast, when the cigars were passed, one of the party suggested 
that each should tell what he was going to do with his share of the 
profits. This was agreed to, whereupon one partner said he was going 
to buy a home for his mother, another that he was going to pay off the 
mortgage on his father’s farm, the third was going to buy a herd of 
cattle, while still another was going to try and repeat his success by 


grub-staking 1 some prospectors. Van Zant was the last to tell his plans 
and seemed reluctant to mention them, but on being pressed, he finally 
said, that he intended to go to London, rent a good suite of rooms, get 
a complete outfit of fashionable clothing, go into society, and marry 
the richest and most attractive girl he could get acquainted with. 
This program he carried out to the letter, marrying the daughter of 
Sir John Lubbock (afterward Lord Avebury). The happy couple 
took a wedding-tour through the United States, not forgetting to 
include in their itinerary the Golden West. Prospectors in those days 
had a habit of haunting the hotels with the hope of unloading their 
finds on unsuspecting tourists, and while at Butte one of these worthies 
drew Van Zant aside and showed him some ore from a new strike four 
miles from the town. A T an Zant’s engineering training and Leadville 
experience had made him a pretty good judge of minerals, he im¬ 
mediately recognized the value of the ore, and offered to go with the 
prospector to see his claim. The result was that Van Zant bought the 
mine and settled down to develop it. - 

This was the beginning of the famous Blue Bird mine, which, for 
many years, paid large monthly dividends with wonderful regularity. 

After this had been going on for some years without a hitch, a 
small cloud appeared on the horizon in the shape of an apex side-line 
lawsuit with the Little Darling, a contiguous mine. This kind of 
litigation had been the curse of Colorado for some years, but this was 
its first outbreak in Montana, in order to obtain legal advice from 
experts in this type of litigation, Van Zant came to Denver and en¬ 
gaged the firm of Wolcott & Vaile to represent him in the coming 
fight. He also went to New York and secured the services of Dr. 
Rossiter W. Raymond, secretary of the American Institute of Mining 
Engineers, as leading expert. The Little Darling owners, hearing of 
this, followed suit by engaging the firm of Patterson & Thomas as 
attorneys and myself as leading expert. The local attorney in Butte 
for the Little Darling mine was William Scallon, a young attorney 
who had just come over from the Coeur d’Alene on snow-shoes, pulling 
his law-books behind him on a toboggan. 

The situation proved extremely complicated and one that was 
certainly never contemplated by the framers of the Apex Law, as, 
while there was a true-fissure vein in granite (aplite, to be more 
nearly accurate) the vein had been dislocated by a fault which gave 
it two parallel apices on adjoining claims, the Blue Bird and the 
Little Darling. By aid principally of the wonderful ability of the 



[ 13 ] 


HARRISON AVENUE, LEADVILLE, IN 1879 


















Little Darling’s local attorney, Mr. Seal Ion, the Blue Bird got the 
worst of it in the preliminary hearings, and, rather than allow the 
case to come to trial, the Blue Bird company bought the Little Darling 
from its owners at their own figures. 

The principal owner in the Little Darling was Jim Murray, a 
noted plunger and a great friend of Marcus Daly. In his younger 
days Daly had been a working miner on the Comstock. When Butte 
was discovered he came there and secured the ownership of a number 
of the most prominent mines, which he organized into a company 
named after the principal mine in the group, The Anaconda Gold 
& Silver Mining & Milling Co., which name is still in gilt letters on 
one of the safes in the Anaconda Copper company’s offices in Butte. 
Daly, through his friend Murray, probably during some of their all- 
night sessions at poker in the Silver Bow Club, managed to follow, 
with considerable interest, the Blue Bird-Darling litigation and when 
the final result was reached he decided to prepare for future con¬ 
tingencies by engaging Mr. Sea lion as attorney and myself as con¬ 
sulting engineer to his mines. An additional inducement to secure 
professional advice arose from the fact that the mine-workings had 
already passed through the oxidized surface zone, carrying silicious 
gold and silver ore, down into solid sulphides carrying their principal 
values in copper. Daly was enterprising, far-sighted, and had 
abundant backing ; while operating the mines he had already secured, 
he was continually on the look-out for other properties that might 
be expected to become producers or would protect him from future 
litigation. So rapidly did he push his various purchases and enter¬ 
prises that I suggested to him one day that, owing to the irregularity 
of the orebodies and the difficulties of following them, we ought to 
have a competent geologist who would make a thorough study of the 
underground conditions, which was something I had not been able 
to find time to do. His reply was simple, ‘Mist remember there are 
no strings on ye.” As a result of this interview I began looking about 
for a desirable economic geologist and selected for this position Horace 
V. Winchell, under whose careful work and painstaking studies the 
mysteries of the irregularities in the ore deposits were gradually un¬ 
raveled. The geological department grew steadily in size and im¬ 
portance until it is now the most thoroughly organized and has the 
finest equipment of geological maps and sections of any group of 
mines in the world. 

As the business expanded additional smelters were built, 


more 


mines purchased, and the entire hill hummed with ceaseless activity. 
Up to this time my jurisdiction was limited to the study ot* the ore- 
bodies and the passing of opinions on the desirability or undesirability 
of purchasing adjoining property. One day Mr. Daly said that the 
superintendents were all hounding him for more compressed air and 
that he had already bought more air-compressors than he had ever 
seen or heard of, and that lie would like to know exactly how much 
more compressor-capacity was needed. He asked me to ascertain 
this and report to him when lie returned to Butte about a week later. 
A careful study of conditions showed that compressed air was being 
used for many things besides the operation of drills, such as running 
pumps, underground hoists, and ventilating. In addition to this, 
when the slopes on a level were worked out, the pipes, instead of being 
taken down, were allowed to remain in place and sometimes not even 
shut off from the main line. This was due, partly to the fact that 
the copper drippings dissolved away the iron to such an extent that 
it was rarely desirable to use old pipe unless it came from very dry 
workings. In addition to this the chain-gangs were exceedingly lax 
in tightening up leaks, a careful calculation having shown that if 
unnecessary waste could be prevented the mines already had more com¬ 
pressor-capacity than was needed. When I reported this to Daly he 
seemed incredulous. As the next day was ‘Change Sunday’ 1 asked 
him to come up to the Neversweat mine, where the principal com¬ 
pressors were situated, at 11 a.m. Of course, no drilling or under¬ 
ground hoisting was going on on ‘Change Sunday,’ and the super¬ 
intendent and foremen were given orders to shut off all the pumps 
and ventilating pipes so that there would be no useful consumption 
of air. As the compressor-engines were fitted with indicators, it was 
easy to ascertain exactly the power necessary to maintain a constant 
pressure, or, in other words, to offset the leakage. When Daly came 
up to the mine and the engineers explained to him that it was taking 
1100 hp. to keep up the leakage on the various pipe-lines his comments 
on the situation were amusing, strictly to the point, but hardly fit for 
publication. Next morning the chain-gangs were busy stopping leaks 
and the dealers in air-compressing machinery were a sadly disap¬ 
pointed lot. 

This incident immediately enlarged my jurisdiction, one of the 
results of which was that we soon had a competent mechanical engineer 
installed, in charge of all the machinery on the mines, together with a 
sufficient staff to test thoroughly and bring up to the highest possible 


efficiency every boiler, hoist, and air-compressor on the job. Out of 
this work grew the necessity for a large central machine-shop where 
all kinds of repair-work could be carried out successfully at home. 
This change proved so satisfactory and economical that a central 
sample-grinding and assay-office was established, all of the small 
assay-offices at the individual mines being discontinued. This proved, 
if possible, even more satisfactory than the central machine-shop, 
for, with the power-driven grinding-machinery, it was possible to 
handle much larger samples and obtain more concordant results than 
when small samples from the drifts and stope-faces were crushed on 
the bucking-boards in the small assay-offices at the different mines. 

Later, an unfortunate quarrel between Marcus Daly and W. A. 
Clark brought on a most bitterly contested mining lawsuit. The 
properties involved in this case were the Neversweat mine, belonging 
to the Anaconda group, and Clark’s Colusa, two of the richest and 
most productive mines in the district. In this contest both Daly and 
Clark were intensely interested, as each considered his personal honor 
at stake; hence the contest was waged with greater earnestness than 
either of the men would ever have evinced for the mere money-value 
of the properties involved. 

W. S. Keyes of San Francisco was given engineering charge of 
the case for Mr. Clark and I filled the same position for Mr. Daly, 
who on several occasions reiterated his old remark that there were 
“no strings on ye,’’ meaning, of course, that expense was not to be 
considered and that the best engineering and legal talent obtainable 
should be engaged. This led to the engagement as attorneys for the 
suit, in addition to the exceedingly able legal force already in the 
employ of the Anaconda company, of Charles S. Thomas of Colorado 
and Joel F. Vaile, while, as experts I was fortunate enough to secure 
the services of Clarence King, N. S. Slialer, Rossiter W. Raymond, 
H. V. Winchell, W. A. Wiley, and E. E. Chase. We all put up at 
the old McDermott Hotel and were given a special table in the dining¬ 
room, where our meals, enlivened by the sparkling conversation and 
brilliant wit of the senior witnesses and attorneys, were a delight. 

One day while puzzling over underground conditions and wander¬ 
ing through the workings alone, as I had done dozens of times before, 

I walked into some new workings on the extreme western end of the 
Neversweat orebody that had not yet had time to slack or cave. This 
showed what had been obscured in workings that were open for some 
time, namely, that the orebody, instead of tapering to a feather edge 



liARIMER STREET, DENVER, IN 1 875 









































































































































































































































































































as orebodies usually do at their terminations, were cut off diagonally 
like the point of a chisel. A careful investigation showed a crack 
tilled with finely-ground material crossing the workings diagonally. 
As the note-book I had with me was large enough to show both the 
Neversweat and Colusa workings on the same sheet, I drew with a 
blue pencil (from which it was afterwards named the Blue Fault) 
a diagonal line from the termination of the Colusa vein eastward to 
the western termination of the Neversweat. Of course, the next step 
was to go to the eastern termination of Clark’s Colusa and see if any¬ 
thing like the same conditions could be observed there. A short in¬ 
vestigation showed that the mysterious termination of Clark’s Colusa 
vein to the east and the Neversweat vein to the west was probably 
caused by the same fault. This explanation was not immediately 
accepted by the other witnesses, but a critical examination of condi¬ 
tions in the different levels of both mines soon convinced all of them 
that the dislocation theory was correct. The faulting had evidently 
occurred before the termination of the mineralizing period, as the 
fault-fissure, in addition to the usual ‘drag’ ore, carried mineral as 
originally deposited. This proved the key to underground conditions 
at Butte, which, by the painstaking studies of the Anaconda com¬ 
pany’s geologists, has completely unraveled the position of dislocated 
veins. 

Later, when Mr. Daly’s health commenced to fail, the mines were 
sold to the newly organized Amalgamated Copper Company. Scallon 
and I were transferred with the property. H. H. Rogers, the virtual 
head of the Standard Oil Co., also assumed complete control of the 
Amalgamated Copper Co., and insisted on extending my jurisdiction 
to include the smelters. I protested that I was not a metallurgist and 
that I was entirely incompetent for the work, to which he replied, 
“We know you are not a metallurgist, but you know more about the 


different metallurgists in the country than we do and all we expect 
you to do is to select the very best man you can find and do what you 
can to help him make a success of the new plant,” I spent a few 
extremely anxious days and nights mentally weighing the experience 
and ability of the different metallurgists with whom 1 was acquainted 
or could gain authentic information about. After most careful con¬ 
sideration, I decided to offer the position to E. P. Mathewson, who 
was at that time in charge of the American Smelting & Refining Co.’s 
smelting operations in South America. The selection proved to be 
a most happy one for all concerned, as Mr. Mathewson’s metallurgical 


skill, business ability, and unfailing tact have made the new smelting- 
plant at Anaconda not only a wonderful success, but the Mecca for 
copper metallurgists from all over the world. 

As Mr. Rogers was heavily interested in iron mining and familiar 
with their economical methods of extraction, he naturally looked 
on copper mining costs as exceedingly high and was extremely anxious 
to know if some of the methods employed in iron mining could not 
he utilized in the extraction of copper ore. After talking the matter 
over, he insisted that T should visit the principal iron mines of Minne¬ 
sota, where the Federal Steel Co. ’s properties were situated, and 
familiarize myself with what they were doing. I had already seen 
a large number of the Minnesota iron mines but had never examined 
them with this specific purpose in view, therefore I was, of course, 
delighted at the opportunity afforded for studying their methods in 
greater detail. 

As usual, I was provided with a private car, which was moved 
from one mine to another as the work progressed. The trip proved a 
most pleasant and interesting one, especially as I made the acquaint¬ 
ance of the different mine superintendents, from whom there was 
much to be learned. 

Unfortunately, however, the mode of occurrence of the orebodies 
and the numerous surface improvements at Butte entirely prohibited 
the use of the more economical methods of iron mining, but observa¬ 
tions on the trip fully established the desirability of back-filling 
wherever possible. In consequence, the hoisting of waste from all 
our mines was discontinued and the material obtained from develop¬ 
ment was employed in back-filling. 

As usual, however, Mr. Rogers’ far-sighted views on the subject 
were entirely correct, and, while iron-mining methods are not ap¬ 
plicable to Butte, they have since come into general use in many of 
the large copper mines in the United States, Chile, and Spain. 

Consulting-engineering on operations controlled by If. II. Rogers 
was a liberal education in itself, as his wonderful business ability and 
tremendous grasp of details enabled him to cover the field of possi¬ 
bilities so thoroughly that success in any undertaking was almost 
certain. 

Owing to the time required to make the trip from New York to 
Butte, Mr. Rogers was rarely able to visit the mines, but his memory 
and power of visualization were so great that he had before him 
constantly a mental picture of what was going on in the West. Officials 


coming into his office from the mines and smelters were astonished to 
find him asking the most searching questions in the most familiar 
manner about everything that was going on, as if he had only visited 
the property a few days before. Again, the human side of the equation 
was constantly before him. Not only did lie remember and make ail 
his superintendents and managers feel that lie had a personal interest 
in them, but the health and welfare of his humblest employees were 
always given the most careful consideration. 

How Mr. Rogers was able to carry the details of all the different 
lines of business in which he was engaged and keep intimate track of 
the widely scattered members of his staff was always a mystery to his 
friends, but may be partly explained by his ability to drop business 
entirely on leaving his office. 

During the summer months he rarely remained in the city over¬ 
night, but went out to sea on his magnificent yacht, The Kanawha. 
With his wide circle of friends and lovable disposition, lie generally 
managed to have with him some congenial company and an invitation 
1o a trip on the yacht was something that none of his acquaintances 
ever declined. Among his special friends were Mark Twain and Tom 
Reed, who at that time was Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
These two intimates were usually invited together. Once when Reed 
had just been invited for a week-end trip on The Kanawha, he ran 
across Mark Twain and told him of the invitation before Mr. Rogers 
had time to invite him. Whereupon Mark Twain jumped to the con¬ 
clusion that he might possibly he forgotten and sent the following 
letter: 


“My Dear Harry: 

Have just seen Tom Reed and he tells me that he is invited to 
spend the week-end on The Kanawha, and I would like to remind you 
that a, boat requires virtue as well as ballast. 

Most sincerely, 

S. L. Clemens. ” 

As many a truth is told in jest, this letter was altogether too good 
to be lost, and Mr. Rogers immediately had it framed and hung up in 
his office, since, aside from the gentle thrust at Reed’s ponderosity, 
the sentiment of the epistle was equally applicable to the conduct of 
human life and the management of corporations. 


Early Days in Colorado 


By T. A. Rickard 


In this issue we publish some technical reminiscences of Mr. David 
W. Brunton, covering his first experience in Colorado and Montana. 
The subject and the author join in making this article unusually inter¬ 
esting. Mr. Brunton is one of a small group of capable Canadians that 
have enriched the profession of mining engineering in America. While 
his preliminary instruction was obtained at Toronto, he owed his first 
step as a practitioner to the University of Michigan, as he tells us on 
another page. As an ex-President of the American Institute of Mining 
Engineers he obtained official acknowledgment of his distinction in 
engineering many years after those of us who lived in the West had 
learned to recognize in him one of the ablest and most honorable ex¬ 
ponents of a difficult calling. The inventor of a surveyor’s compass 
now in use in every quarter of the earth, he possessed that magnetic 
needle of character which guided him through the shoals of circum¬ 
stance to a foremost place in the roster of the profession. Indeed, we 
are glad to publish these recollections of his early work, knowing well 
that hundreds of his old friends will read them with keen pleasure, 
while an even larger number of younger men will find in them a sug¬ 
gestion and a stimulus to honorable endeavor. 

His story of the trip to Mineral Point in 1875 appeals to the present 
writer because it travels over familiar trails. Mineral Point has never 
fulfilled the hopes of the prospector. Situated on a ridge separating 
the headwaters of the Animas and Uncompahgre rivers, in the very 
heart of a great mineral region, it has belied the expectations of many 
experienced men. The andesitic mountain sides are seamed with 
veins, the outcrops of which can be seen from afar as white lines of 
remarkable continuity. The Point itself is a knob of quartz fully 60 
feet thick, from which several veins diverge, as if it were a centre of 
mineralization—which is just what the early prospectors assumed it to 
be. Mr. Brunton missed nothing by not camping there longer than he 
did. On his way thither he ‘struck it rich’ in meeting Mr. H. W. Reed, 
who, in later years, became connected professionally with some of the 


richest mines in the San Juan, notably, the Virginias. Mr. Reed lives 
now at Salt Lake City, as is shown by the vigorous letters he wrote in 
our issues of July 24 and August 14 on forestry anomalies. On his 
way out, Mr. Brunton descended Henson creek, passing the Ute and 
Ulay silver-lead mines, which, for a decade, at least, were the main 
support of Lake City. When he tramped up the Lake Fork of the 
Gunnison, he must have left the valley near Lake San Cristobal, where 
Enos T. Hotchkiss had started the diggings that became the celebrated 
Golden Fleece mine, which, in 1896, shipped nine carloads of ore 
averaging $40,000 per ton, and in a few months yielded a fortune to 
Mr. George W. Peirce, who is now at Oatman, Arizona. In following 
the Rio Grande valley to Del Norte, Mr. Brunton must have passed 
the place where 16 years later Creede sprang into life and joined with 
Cripple Creek in saving Colorado during the dark days of 1893. 
According to recent reports this district, which came to the front with 
N. C. Creede ? s discovery of the Amethyst vein in 1891, is still far from 
dead, even if it is not quite so ebullient as in the days when Cy 
Warm an sang: 

“It's day all day in the day-time 
And there is no night in Creede.” 

How Denver looked in the period to which Mr. Brunton refers is 
shown by the accompanying photograph of an old wood-cut now in the 
possession of the Historical Museum at Denver. Forty years is no 
great lapse of time, as measured by the historian, but to the eager 
exploiters of the Great West it is as a geologic period. In those 
Eocene mornings of 1875 Mr. Brunton found Central City and George¬ 
town in the throes of metallurgical revolution. The free-milling 
precious-metal ores of the oxidized zone had been succeeded, at a 
shallow depth, by heavily pyritic and relatively complex ores. Roast¬ 
ing before pan-amalgamation and hyposulphite leaching had brought 
the Bruckner, Kiistel, and Stetefeldt furnaces into prominence. The 
Collom jig had just been invented ; but concentration was crude. N. P. 
Hill had established his smelter at Black Hawk, and had just been 
joined by Mr. Richard Pearce, now living near Liverpool, in England, 
after a long career of useful accomplishment. The Stewart mentioned 
by Mr. Brunton was J. 0. Stewart, who had an important custom-mill 
at Georgetown. He had built an annex for the application of the Hunt 
& Douglas process, a method lending itself to graphic representation 
by the chemical formulae that used to bother many of us in our student 


days. The process is now obsolete, but the names of the two inventors 
live in the annals of mining, for Thomas Sterry Hunt gave to chemical 
geology many provocative suggestions and Mr. James Douglas has 
lived to be one of the most beloved of men, known the world over for 
his skill as a metallurgist, his sagacity as an executive, and his public 
spirit as a citizen. 

Coming to the Leadville reminiscences of our distinguished con¬ 
tributor, we may be permitted to say that the talented author of ‘The 
Led Horse Claim’ attended the recent meeting of the American 
Institute in San Francisco, being the wife of one of the leaders of our 
profession, Mr. Arthur DeW. Foote, long identified with the successful 
operation of the North Star mine at Grass Valley. In regard to the 
Van Zant. story, the present writer arrived at the Blue Bird mine on 
the very morning when the news of his suicide reached William Keller 
and Mr. Philip L. Foster, the latter now resident at New York as the 
representative of the Exploration Company. The former died a few 
years later at El Oro. Austin H. Brown was then in charge of the big 
mill; he died in 1913. Mr. Charles Van Zant was also at the Blue Bird 
on that date, in 1891 ; he called at this office a few weeks ago. The Blue 
Bird has played a part in the lives of a great many notable men, as is 
shown by Mr. Brunton’s notes concerning the early litigation at Butte. 
Those apex-suits still proceed with undiminished keenness and con¬ 
tinue to furnish a grindstone for sharpening the wits of men mentally 
alert to the niceties of structural geology. Our readers will like Mr. 
Brunton’s account of his own part in them, and they will appreciate 
the letter from Mark Twain to II. II. Rogers. Truly, “virtue, as well 
as ballast” is required for a safe voyage to any port in life. The 
strength of purpose and continuity of effort that give direction to 
human endeavor are shown in the auto-biographic records of our 
successful engineers. In the days of their apprenticeship to the 
profession, they applied themselves with sincerity of aim to the ac¬ 
quirement of knowledge and experience, accumulating a mental capital 
that yielded generous dividends when subsequently opportunity 
knocked on their door. 























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